https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-layoffs-20190111-story.html Discuss
Wait, what happened to the plan of equipping Model X with rocket thrusters?
That was the roadster
Elon was probably high again when he tweeted that. Could we make a single prototype hover, yes but it wouldn't be a feature they could mass produce and sell for all sorts of reasons like, expense of needed control systems, refueling logistics, Gov. License, etc.
Damn, sucks
Tech companies continue to undercut the competition by subsidizing losses with investor money. This will end badly for many. See WeWork as an example of a massive bankruptcy in the making.
How the fuck did WeWork get so big? This is for an open office space renovation and management company? And then Masayoshi Son goes, I'll give them Billions for that.
They have massively undercut lessors to the point where the their model now depends on being the low cost provider. All because of low rates and prospering investors throwing money at WeWork in the hopes it’s the next amazon. Too bad because their model was novel. Greedy investors have saddled it with more debt than it will be able to handle
My theory: a few bad things happened in the fall of 2018 1) loss of that USAF $2.3B govt contract (some speculated due to drug-related display on that radio show?) 2) the funding rounds last fall did not return that much money That led to two things IMHO: 1) accelerated development of Starhopper/Starship (first flight to be completed before the next funding round in the spring). I guess the hope is to impress potential investors (recreate the vibe after the FH maiden flight a year ago) 2) more firings Just speculation though ...
You may be on to something
Eng or manufacturing? Manuf gets laid off all the time, sometimes they get rehired when things ramp up again
Article doesn't say sorry :O but if people find out, feel free to post!
Someone just posted on Glassdoor said that they cut non-essential people (software, mgmt, etc. basically anyone not designing/building actual hardware) to focus on Starship and Starlink. https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-SpaceX-RVW24180883.htm Someone else on Reddit mentioned that laid off employees got to keep their stock.
Everyone can shoot themselves in the foot, but only Elon can make it on such scale. The company is fucked up.
Trying to lean a company already so lean for the scope of work. We already constantly struggle to meet customer commitments. https://bgr.com/2019/01/11/crew-dragon-delay-spacex-nasa/
So I guess we're not going to Mars?
Mars is heaven
The company's main source of income - satellites launches is drying off. Whoever needed something in space already did it or will have it in 2019. The Starlink internet business that was supposed to save as all has been dragging it's feet, and after the reorg in Redmond started literally from scratch. Elon changed his mind about it 100 times and if we launch the current iteration it will be a laughing stock. Manned flights for NASA keep being delayed, the last straw is a thorough review after his weed smoking and erratic behavior. Investors are reluctant to give their money to a visibly unstable person, that doesn't know how to do business. And tons of of money and resources are being dumped into the boring company and the Starship - projects that nobody wants or needs.
And the recent funding was only 250 mil instead of 750, so that's a big impact.
Of course. No one in their right mind would throw money at him anymore. I am saying all that but I hope I'll be proven wrong. Elon is an idiot whose megalomaniac complex went out of proportion, but SpaceX and Tesla can give a lot to the world. And it would be a shame if he manage to ruin both of them.
Holy shit